First of all, Stitch N Bitch Chicago is not a forum, it’s an informational website. Secondly, it’s not even regarding sewing – it’s knitting! Any backlash SFSE gets for this, I feel they deserve.

Response: “They cannot claim they own it…”

If you’re talking about the “stitch & bitch” minus “cafe” unregistered mark, then the classes listed for their trademark registration are not necessarily relevant to any alleged ownership of the unregistered mark. It’s how they’ve been using the “stitch & bitch” mark that might give them any rights.

eeesh! I just don’t understand their thinking at all. Bad public relations, an unregistered mark, requesting licensing fees (from who? non-profit crafting groups?) before they are capable of accepting agreements, offering product they don’t yet have….They need to focus on what they DO have instead. I also find the whole ‘patented teaching style’ pretty funny. They don’t have a patent either. Not my kind of people, these SFSE folks.

Yes, you can license an unregistered trademark. But hopefully the prospective licensee would do their homework first to determine that the licensor actually has rights to license before agreeing to pay up (i.e., we assume the licensee isn’t a sucker).